


Out of the Shadows

by Listentothelittlebird



Series: Code Bat [23]
Category: Batman (Comics), Batman - All Media Types
Genre: (their Gotham uniforms look different), Alternate Universe, Batfamily (DCU), Code Bat, Gen, Not Canon Compliant, Robots, the beginning of the Identity Reveal
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-28
Updated: 2020-12-28
Packaged: 2021-03-10 19:46:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,991
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28372605
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Listentothelittlebird/pseuds/Listentothelittlebird
Summary: The other superheroes were occupied with their own robot problems. Gotham was on its own.It’s about time they show Gotham who’s been defending them.
Relationships: Cassandra Cain & Tim Drake & Dick Grayson & Duke Thomas & Jason Todd & Bruce Wayne & Damian Wayne
Series: Code Bat [23]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1964452
Comments: 126
Kudos: 662





	1. An Icy Predicament

**Author's Note:**

> The first (of a few fics) is here!
> 
> I’m revealing the secret bit by bit - I hope I’ll deliver, regardless of whatever you fantasised yourself :))

“This is it,” Batman rumbled, meeting each one of his children’s eyes. It was an emergency meeting, a plan pulled out of thin air to deal with their latest Gotham problem, but Batman - Bruce - had to be sure that his children were on board, before they proceeded. He had to make sure they knew what was to happen. He tugged off his cowl to direct his gaze at each of them, properly.

“Once we put our plan into motion, the Bats will be out in the open. We will be known to the public - it would not take long for Gothamites to identify each one of you, by your unofficial nicknames. It would not take long for your friends and our enemies to become suspicious of the identities of the Gotham vigilantes. Are you ready?”

There was a beat of silence, that stretched on for longer than it really was. There was still the tight veil of urgency in the air, to deal with the emergency as quickly as they could, even as Batman’s partners took a moment to reflect.

Nightwing was the first to speak, smiling confidently, “Why wouldn’t I be ready?”

Red Hood snorted next, accompanied with a shrug, “It’s about time we do this.”

“I’ve been wanting to add my gliding wings to my Red Robin costume, anyway.”

“Tt. I wouldn’t mind being able to tell my… friends… my real name.”

“Well… it doesn’t really matter for me, since I’m not officially part of The Outsiders yet, but I’m ready.”

“I’ve been waiting to mingle with people outside of the Birds of Prey!”

“Same,” followed by Cass smiling assuredly at Batman, signing, “ _We are ready._ ”

Bruce nodded, smiled briefly, and pulled his cowl back on.

“Let’s go,” Batman ordered, “Remember the plan.”

~

As all things in life, the plan goes awry.

Mr. Freeze had somehow received funds and guidance to instruct a large robot that was tearing its way down the street. There was a snowstorm raging, one arm of the robot a freeze gun, the other arm a hand breaking through anything in its path.

Batman had gone in the Batmobile to confront Mr. Freeze head-on, with the rest of the Bats taking to the rooftops. Batman was supposed to be the distraction, to hold Mr. Freeze’s attention while the plan was set in place. 

Mr. Freeze managed to grab hold of Batman with his robot’s hand. The hand squeezed. Batman heard a sharp creaking noise, before his grappling hook gave way with a crunch.

“O,” Batman gruffed, “Status of the other cities?”

“Still under fire by similar robots,” Oracle replied bluntly, “No help will be coming for us.”

That meant no Superman to assist him, no Flash to come running. Wonder Woman was on an off-world mission with the Amazons. It was just the Bats - which was more than enough.

“Change of plans,” Batman murmured, “N, standby to assist me. Signal, stun at my word. O, have you sent Black Bat-”

“The blueprints? Yes,” Oracle confirmed, “She has a device that’ll let me hack into exposed components. It won’t get me to the main controls, but it’ll be enough to release you.”

“Any last words, Batman?” Mr. Freeze rasped, his voice echoing out of the control room of the robot via speakers. The other arm of the robot trained onto Batman’s head, the inbuilt freeze gun charging.

“Signal, now!” Batman barked.

A bright yellow costume materialised at the viewing glass of the control panel. “Say cheese!” Signal yelled. 

Batman’s cowl protected him from the bright flash that followed. Mr. Freeze yelped, the freeze gun going off-target. 

Black Bat jumped over from the nearest rooftop, stabbing forcefully into a weak point of the robot hand, inserting Oracle’s hacking device into the circuitry. The fingers of the hand shuddered and opened.

The freeze gun went off, and Black Bat flipped off the hand as it froze over, Mr. Freeze roaring in frustration. Batman was falling now, the weightless feeling settling beside carefully-concealed nerves as he reached for his grapple and was reminded of its demise.

A black and blue blur collided with Batman, throwing them both onto the rooftop beside them. They rolled once, twice, before stopping.

“You alright?” Nightwing asked, jumping to his feet and scanning his father for injuries. “I’m fine,” Batman gruffed, but still accepted his son’s hand to help him stand.

The Batmobile was tearing its way down the street, again. A small figure was perched on the back of the vehicle, holding tightly to a contraption strapped onto its back. Robin’s cape fluttered in the wind, yellow peeking out from under the black.

The robot attempted to turn towards the roaring engine, but was promptly interrupted by the raining down of gunshots from a rooftop. Red Hood stood visible at its edge, both guns trained on the robot and holding its attention. Signal was still climbing around the robot’s exterior, sliding down towards the legs of the giant machine.

The robot aimed its freeze gun at Red Hood, who quickly dove out of the way, disappearing for mere moments before reappearing on another ledge. Nightwing, Black Bat and Batman joined him on different perches, throwing batarangs into chinks in the robot’s joints that forced Mr Freeze to switch his attention between four people.

“Double R, we’ve got his attention.”

“Got it.”

Red Robin leapt from his perch, spreading his gliding wings and steering towards the legs of the robot, where Signal was waiting with a tight cord wrapped around one of the kneecaps of the robot. Signal threw the other end of the cord towards Red Robin, and he landed and secured it on the other kneecap. 

“BG, R, in position?”

“Yup!”

Signal gave Red Robin a thumbs up, and both proceeded to grapple off the robot. Red Robin pressed the trigger, and the cord snapped tightly together, locking the robot’s kneecaps together. 

At the same time, the Batmobile sped away from the robot. Robin was holding onto the cable being let loose from the Batmobile’s back. He clicked the trigger, and the cable retracted forcefully. One boot of the robot jerked, just enough to start slipping along the ice created by its own path of destruction.

The robot fell with a thundering crash. Mr. Freeze climbed out of his control room, only to be met with a swift kick to his face, knocked out and detained in a few seconds flat by Black Bat.

“Good work, everyone,” Batman rumbled into the comms, grappling down and taking Mr. Freeze from Black Bat. The others descended after him, and there was a unanimous agreement to linger around the robot, just to ensure it was truly down.

There was also the silent urge to, for lack of a better phrase, give the public sufficient time to gawk. If Nightwing winked at a camera and Batgirl gave a wave, well, Batman was not stopping them.

“What’re you doing, kid?” Red Hood asked curiously, leaning over the opening of the control room as Red Robin crouched next to the console, having opened the control panel’s circuitry. 

“The robots in the other cities are pretty similar to this one,” Red Robin explained, even as he continued to type into his holo-glove, “I’m just trying to… ah, there we go.”

Not five seconds later did Oracle report in their ears, “The robots in the other cities suddenly deactivated at the same time. A little warning would have been nice, just saying.”

“A thanks would be nice, too,” Red Robin snarked back. Red Hood snickered and offered his brother a hand out of the entrance, “C’mon, then. We better be back in the Batcave to see Supes fly in.”

“I didn’t think of that,” Batgirl commented excitedly, “Are we finally gonna meet some of B’s colleagues? Hell, if I were them, I’d have _so_ many questions.”


	2. Supes flies in

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Clark flies into the Batcave. That’s it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There was a comment on chapter 4 of [The Alley Bat](https://archiveofourown.org/works/27058936) by DanceDanceRevolution that gave me this idea :)) it’s probably not as the person imagined it, but if that person’s still reading, I hope they enjoy!
> 
> I apologise to whoever out there is getting this at an unearthly hour of the night XD

Clark had _so_ many questions.

The first question was what had happened to the robot - even Toyman himself had looked surprised when the robot had stopped working, and had dropped its protective Kryptonian shield. Superman only had time to reflect on that question when he returned home with his boys, and even then, more questions had already formed. 

One of those questions was answered when he saw the nearly-identical robot in Gotham topple to the icy floor - but he watched on in bewilderment as the footage continued to roll, and more and more Bats seemed to appear from nowhere. He noted that Gotham’s robot had fallen before all the others, and that the ones in Star City and Central City had shut down like his own. 

When contacted, Batman invited Superman over to the Batcave to discuss the details of their respective fights.

As Superman flew into the Batcave through one of its many tunnel entrances, he noted that there were more noises echoing through the cave system than usual. More voices than he usually heard. 

He touched down in the main cave, and had to take a moment just to look around.

The Bats he had just seen in the video posted to social media were all present, all doing various things. There was one with a red hood, cleaning a gun with his legs propped up on the nearest table. Sitting on the table was Black Bat with a blonde-haired girl, chatting in a mixture of hand signs and verbal phrases. 

Richard was the only one who acknowledged him, smiling in greeting at him and walking over from where he had been standing with two boys, one sharpening his sword on the ground and the other using his phone. Even then, there was something different about him, his smile brighter and less restrained, a spring to the way he walked, things that were absent during the times he had seen the young man as Batman.

“B’s over there,” Richard nodded his head towards where Batman was seated in his normal chair at the Batcomputer, his cowl pulled off to leave his hair flattened. What Clark had neglected to notice was another boy beside him, his own cowl off and the gliding wings used in the video tucked behind his back.

“Bruce!” Richard called as they walked over, “Superman’s here!”

“I know,” came the reply, while the boy beside him jerked his head up to blink at Superman. He smirked, something like mirth in his eyes as he signed something to Bruce, who shook his head with a barely-there smile. Clark recognised the boy after a beat - Timothy Drake-Wayne, young CEO of Wayne Enterprises.

“Clark,” Bruce greeted, “I take it you’d want introductions.”

“I do,” Clark confirmed, casting another glance around the crowded cave. He had always wondered why the Batcave looked so clean, so empty, whenever he had visited before. Now, there were multiple signs of life, even without the people - a used towel draped over a chair, weapons dismantled for cleaning, clothes set out for whenever they thought to change out of their uniforms.

“You already know Dick,” Bruce gestured to Richard, “Although, not by that name, specifically.”

“My friends and family call me Dick,” Richard - Dick - smiled apologetically, “Richard’s what I use when I’m trying to be distant. Sorry about that, I guess.”

Clark waved off his apology as the man cleaning his gun set the weapon down. “That’s my second eldest, Jason,” Bruce stated, as the man flicked off his hood and peeled off his domino before waving lazily in greeting, “You might not remember him, depending on when the last time you read about him was.”

Clark did remember him - Jason Todd-Wayne, the deceased boy. He was definitely not a boy anymore, what with a build that rivalled his father’s.

“This is Tim,” Bruce stated, with a hand on the boy’s shoulder. He gave a shy wave to Clark’s nod, but there was a sharpness to his eyes that Clark often saw in his colleague’s. 

“I’m Steph,” the blonde girl spoke without prompting, tugging off her cowl with a grin, “But you probably know me better as Spoiler. Batgirl’s just the suit that I use when I’m not with the Birds of Prey.”

Batgirl. Clark raised an eyebrow at Bruce, who gave no response. Clark had heard about Batgirl, very briefly, years ago. He had dismissed it as the papers’ latest grab for attention. There were always resurfacing mentions, but those, too, he had ignored. How was he to know Batgirl was real?

She gestured to the boy who was wearing a bright yellow uniform, who looked up from his phone at the mention of his name, “That’s Duke. You’ve probably heard of him as the newest foster kid. He goes by Signal.”

She pointed gleefully at the youngest boy, “And that’s Damian. Y’know, Bruce’s actual kid. He’s the fifth Robin.”

Clark already knew that Damian was biologically Bruce’s son, but…

“Fifth?” Clark turned back to a resigned-looking Bruce, “Robin?”

Clark had heard of the myths, from various sources in both his superhero and civilian persona. The child in bright colours who flew by Batman’s side - who was never seen by the villains and thugs until the very last moment. The rumours never died down, just like gossip about Bruce Wayne, but he had not known that the rumours were true - and that the mantle of Robin was passed down, for that matter.

“Excluding Black Bat and Signal,” Bruce explained, “Everyone has been Robin at one point of time.”

“Signal was part of the Robin gang, too, so that basically makes him an unofficial Robin,” Jason tacked on with a grin. Damian tutted at him, having pulled off his domino mask. 

“What are your hero names?” Clark asked curiously, “Surely you don’t just call yourselves Robin One or Robin Two.”

There were several snorts of laughter, followed by a silent argument, passed between sharp hand gestures and a range of facial expressions.

Eventually, Dick turned to him with another apologetic smile.

“This is long overdue,” he chuckled, before raising a hand for Clark to shake, “Nightwing. Nice to meet you.”

Clark’s brain stuttered, even as he blankly shook Dick’s hand. His eyes registered the escrima sticks still strapped to the back of his suit, the navy blue markings that could almost look like a bird’s wings.

“Red Hood,” Jason stated without preamble, gesturing to his red hood with a “duh” expression.

“Biz’s friend?” Clark blurted, “The guy he calls ‘Red Him’?”

His answer was a smirk. “Timbers, you’re up,” he diverted, his brother rolling his eyes in response.

“I’m Red Robin,” Timothy stated, giving Clark no time to process the revelations. He then stared pointedly at Duke.

“Huh?” Duke blurted out intelligently, quickly followed by, “Oh- oh, yeah. I’m Lark. You probably won’t hear about me anytime soon, but, well, hi.”

Dick - _Nightwing_ \- had moved towards Damian, nudging him in the shoulder as he grinned. “Your turn, Baby Bat,” he chirped. Damian scowled up at him, before turning his gaze towards Clark.

“I go by Robin in Gotham,” Damian sniffed, “At Titans tower, however, I use Canvas, along with the name David Fletcher. I would think Jon has mentioned me, at least once.”

Clark absorbed all this new information, before turning to Bruce.

“You trained several well-known vigilantes, and you didn’t think to mention that at least once?”

~

Clark flailed long enough that Alfred invited him upstairs for a snack, while he collected his thoughts. Which was how Clark found himself in civilian clothes, sitting with Bruce in his dining room, the echoes of his children reaching them from down the corridor.

“Nightwing?” Clark blurted first, a relatively safe starting point. Bruce sighed into his tea, “Dick really liked the storybook of Kryptonian myths you wrote. I think he also enjoyed my reaction to having himself named after something from your culture, seeing as he knew I worked with you very closely.”

Clark chuckled at that. He decided to try a harder question, “What about how your two sons fought each other at Titans tower?”

“The short story is that, before we knew he was alive, Jason was in debt to someone who wanted to learn more about Tim. Specifically, whether he had a mentor,” Bruce summarised, “He managed to convince Tim not to contact me or Dick. In any other circumstance, he would have activated what we call Code Bat. When one of us is otherwise unable to be rescued or assisted by our various teams, we use Code Bat as our emergency plan.”

Superman paused and ran that through his head, re-evaluating past situations with what he knew now.

“So you did take out the thugs, that time Bizarro was exposed to blue Kryptonite,” Superman realised, “You saved Jason first, then doubled back to contact me and get help for his teammates.”

Bruce grunted something like a confirmation. There were still voices down the corridor, varying between easy conversation and dramatic play-fighting dialogue. 

“You hid them to protect them,” Clark guessed, “But now they’re all operating outside of Gotham in various forms, and it makes more sense to open up about your connections.”

Another grunt. Bruce set down his tea, something like an apology in his eyes.

“I did what was best at the time,” Bruce stated quietly, “I know you’re against secrets, but…”

Clark stopped him with a shake of his head. “It’s actually pretty obvious, when you give it some thought,” Clark smiled, “Honestly, it’s on me that I never noticed all my children were hanging out with people that acted like you.”

Bruce huffed at that, and they fell into easy silence. Clark startled slightly when Jason appeared from behind him, pulling out a chair and settling himself in, his foot propped on his knee.

“So,” Jason drawled, “Have you asked him, yet?”

Bruce grunted a “no”, and turned his gaze back to Clark.

“We’ve been thinking about bringing Jason back into the public eye,” Bruce stated, “Would you be interested in conducting an interview?”

Clark smiled warmly, “I don’t see why not.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The situation Clark mentioned, where Bizarro was exposed to blue Kryptonite, is found in [How Are You?](https://archiveofourown.org/works/27798400)
> 
> The first reveal! Next: a certain archer’s perspective ;)


End file.
